Every team needs a catalyst, that one player who can sense exactly what the team needs and deliver in the key moment.

The CSU women’s basketball team is still trying to find that player on a consistent basis, but on Sunday it was Gritt Ryder who carried the Rams to a 59-54 win over Weber State in front of 985 fans at Moby Arena.

Ryder hit five of six 3-point attempts and set a career-high with 25 points, breaking her previous career-high of 21. Fifteen of her points came in the second half as Colorado State University took down Weber State.

That focus on shooting more is something that Ryder, a junior from Denmark, took to heart and focused on in Sunday’s game.

“I get yelled at in practice for not shooting more, so I thought this was the game to do it,” Ryder said. “I got open shots, and when the first one was in, then the second one, I was like ‘OK, I’ll keep shooting it.’ ”

Ryder and the rest of the Rams (8-3) got the win with a strong second half, but it took shaking off some shaky play early.

Coming into the game, Williams had implored his team to not check out mentally with the holiday break looming, but early it looked like CSU had done just that. The Rams had nine turnovers in the first nine minutes and finished with 19 total.

In the second half, the Rams were a bit better but still shot only 34 percent in the half. The win was earned midway through the second half when CSU went on a 10-0 run, turning a 32-30 deficit into a 40-34 lead from which Weber State (4-5) didn’t recover.

Ryder’s scoring outburst came at a perfect time, as Sam Martin (10 points) was the only other CSU player in double figures.

The win ends nonconference play for CSU, after going 4-9 in nonconference action last year.

“I don’t think we’ve ever gone into a conference season with a winning record, and that’s pretty cool,” Martin said of her time at CSU.

The team is excited about where it’s at now, but knows there’s plenty of room for growth.

“We’re not satisfied with eight wins, we want it to be 11-0,” Ryder said. “That’s the strong thing about this team, 8-3 is good, but we want to get better.”

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle at twitter.com/Kevin_Lytle and at facebook.com/KevinSLytle.